2008 Asparagus

It's that time of year again. Asparagus season. It took forever getting here too! This spring has been one of the weirdest that we can remember, although strangely, no one seems to be noticing it, at least in our neighborhood. I can tell that it is an "in tune" with the earth thing because I finally found someone who gets it too; the farmer at our closest you-pick-it farm. He told us last weekend that the asparagus has been slow to come in this year because of the roller coaster hot/cold weather we've had. Either way, last weekend we made two trips, (Fri and Sat) to the farm to pick a bunch of sweet, tender asparagus.

Here is only a part of the total haul. All told we had over ten pounds of raw asparagus. We brought it home and let it soak for probably a little longer than we had too, but it was in cold water and it kept itself well.
Look at that color! It was, no kidding, the most vibrant green I can imagine. After rinsing and trimming, we shocked the young greens in boiling water. We added 1 lb of shoots to a large pot of water and timed it for 1 min. After the minute passed I pulled them out and they went straight into an ice bath to stop the cooking. We took them from there and layed them out on some paper towels and blotted them off.
Here is a picture of Amber vacuum packing one of the 1/2 lb bags of asparagus that we made. I need to diverge into another product review here.

We bought this small light duty vacuum packer a while back. It is battery operated, and uses a special zip lock bag that has a vented hole built in. We decided to purchase ourselves a Food saver Vacuum Sealer this year. We know that we are going to be putting up more food, and thought we could justify a little expense for that reason. Well let me tell you, we got that thing home, followed the instructions and gave it a whirl. it vacuumed that bag tight, everything looked great, and then... no seal. ??? What's up? We tried that thing 9 ways from Sunday and couldn't get it to seal worth a damn. So guess what we ended up using? That's right, the 15 odd dollar battery operated model with the special zip locks and it worked great! Go figure?

Here is the total haul from one weekend of putting up asparagus. finished weight is approximately 9 pounds. Guess what we spent on it? 10.00 for the asparagus (1.00/lb) and a few bucks for the bags. Can you beat that? I don't think so. If you have U-pick-it's near you I encourage you to get to them and see if they have asparagus ready, it's one of the real prizes of the spring. It's also one of the crops that, although we love it, we will not grow. It takes too long to mature and takes up too much space for our small lot. I rather go down to the farm stand and pick it myself. Besides, it's a great Saturday morning out with the kids and A~.
Hope you all have a great day tomorrow, I'll be finishing my fence. Pictures anyone?
Till then.
P~

Garden Update (100 ft Diet)

Holy Crap, it's been a week since I posted last?? I'm so sorry for the intermission. I am almost done with the major stuff that I've had going on, but not quite. In the Next two days I will be installing the fence (I know now why people pay to set fence posts.) and wrapping that project up, Then on Saturday we're having some family and friends together for my three boys baptism. Faith is something we've always been open and honest about, but have never pushed on them and recently they made a joint decision that they all wanted to be baptised together. As if that weren't enough, all this will come together on A~'s birthday, and they will be confirmed as members of the church on our anniversary... go figure? What a blessing it will be.

Amidst all this chaos, I have been managing to keep relatively on top of the garden, and it has finally begun to really come into it's own. I didn't initially decide to participate in "The Growing Challenge" because, well honestly it's so hard to keep up with all the challenges, but I think I may participate in it after all since I really have a lot of new stuff going on this year, that applies to it. I thought I'd share some pics and updates.
My Cabbages that I planted early this year and had covered as a test did really well through the cold spring that we've had.
New crop this year. I tried Kale for the first time last year when it was too late in the season to grow it. I'll probably grow a late season crop too to see how long I can keep it bearing through the winter.
New crop this year. Grew up with pickled beets, and tried the greens for the first time from a farmer at the F-Market last year, very tasty.
New crop this year. I've never eaten it, but it looks so interesting and I have a co-worker that always had it growing up and loved it, so what the heck.
New(ish) crop this year. Bush beans. I've never grown a bush variety, but thought they would be a good determinant crop for our canning program this year.
New crop this year. Never grown onions, but we've planted approx. 150 starts this year. Some will be tested as storage onions, others will be chopped and frozen for quick recipes.
Rhubarb... what can I say, I love it. I'm trying out more companion planting this year, this is a good one. Broccoli, onions and rhubarb. They are all said to be complimentary, so again, what the heck.
Peas. Not a new crop but definitely a new method. I am using a sort of A-frame technique that I am trying out this year. It seems to be catching on too, three neighbors of mine going down the street have "adopted" my technique. (Hope it works.) I also have mesclun planted under the A-Frames. The idea is that the peas should shade the tender greens as the summer sun get progressively hotter.
This is my early, baby spinach, and radishes. Almost there, I should be eating this stuff this weekend.
Arugula (Rocket). This one took a little doing for me to like. It is definitely a "have with..." not a "have alone..." and gives a earthy, peppery flavor to salads and such, I want to try arugula pesto this year.
And of course the Apple blossom special... What can I say?
Finally, our dwarf cherry tree. This is the smallest tree we have, and last year it only yielded a couple of cherries. The big story here is that I think I have managed to beat a very high aphid infestation organically. Last year every time I walked by this tree, I inspected and removed any aphid heavy leaves and discarded. By the end of the summer it seemed to have beaten it. I hope for this year to be much better.

Well, That's about it folks. I have a bunch of pics of the front yard too. I'll try to get those up tomorrow night. I haven't even begun planting heavily in my main beds either so that ought to go on this week or weekend as well.
As for now, well, I'm beat! I'm going to bed. Hope your all well, and thanks for the patience.
P~
Tomorrow, AsparagusFest '08 begins!!

Stimulus

Hi all, P~ checking in here... Remember me? I was listening to NPR the other day on the way home from work, and heard one of the public service announcements that they're so well known for. Well it got me thinking.
The PSA talked about the upcoming stimulus payments that so many of us will be receiving in one way or another. As we think ahead about all the wonderful things that we can get with this check in order to do our part in "stimulating" the economy, consider this. Before you run out for that new plasma TV, or even that great new kitchen gadget that you've been eying for so long, ask your self..."will this stimulate the economy?" So many of our goods are manufactured outside the country any more that the chances are pretty good that you're buying some fine Chinese, Taiwanese or Mexican goods. This is doing wonders for our global neighbors economy, but for ours, well, not so much. Unless of course you're the retail industry.

I mentioned that we're putting up a fence the other day. It's a vinyl fence. (I know I know, it's plastic, and comes from the petroleum industry, yada yada, yada.) It is one of those things that I kind of have to do, based on standards in our neighborhood. Anyway, I researched the company that we decided to go with, and found that not only are they a local company, (2-3 miles), but the product that they are supplying me with is manufactured right here in the good ole' USA. I'm glad for it. I think the stimulus money should go back into our economy.

I encourage you to really give a little thought to how you decide to spend yours. Here's a couple of suggestions I heard on the radio.

• spend the money with local businesses.
• set some of the money aside and use it throughout the summer at your local farmers market to support local farmers.
• donate a portion of the stimulus to an environmental charity.

I'm sure there are a million other ideas out there, but you get the jist. I don't honestly think that the stimulus checks that are scheduled to go out are going to effect the economy as dramatically as is hoped, but perhaps we can improve those numbers by giving a little thought to how we decide to use it. If you have any specific plans for your "stimulus check" let me know what it is.
Have a great weekend all. I'll check in as I can.

P~

A bit Busy...

I wanted to take a minute to let you all know that I may be a little hit or miss with the posts in the coming week or two. I will post, for sure, but I see it being sporadic at best. We have a lot of things on our plate at the moment, and something has to give. Later this week we will be beginning the process of putting in a fence, finally. It will be a great blessing to us to be able to cordon off our back  yard as a bit of oasis for our family, not to mention the fact that it will allow our chickens a safer range and make available somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-120 sq ft of additional planting beds  ;-)  always a plus! In order for this to meet our budget I will be doing a majority of the work myself, actually with a couple of my neighbors, but you know what I mean. I need to dig up and relocate sprinkler heads, dig post holes, find some way of minimizing the damage to my existing and currently planted garden beds, set posts and assemble the fencing. Combine this with having my traditional frost free, major planting date just getting ready to arrive (Mothers Day), an upcoming deadline at work and too many small chores to list and I’ve got a full load for sure. I’m also in the process of putting together an outline for some instruction that I want to offer for people in my community to help them learn to start and grow a “Freedom / Victory Garden” in their own yards. This is all coming together at the same time so, as mentioned I may be a bit spotty with the posts. Please bear with me as I do the best I can with the few hours in the day.

Thanks

P~

Buyer beware!

I bought this sledgehammer last year from home depot. Actually, let me make that statement correct, I bought a sledgehammer of this same model last year from home depot. The one that I had, I used a couple of times during my recycled concrete pavers project last year.

As I mentioned yesterday, we went out and broke up some more concrete over the weekend. After the first load of it was broken up, brought home and unloaded we went back for a second load. I hadn't even taken swing number 1 when the head literally fell off. It seems that the handle made of "American" hardwood had snapped inside but hadn't come loose yet. I used the head of the hammer to push some dirt to the side before swinging, and plop, there it went. I issued forth a few choice descriptive words to illustrate my frustration and then proceeded to head off to home depot to see if I could still exchange it for a replacement. I mean with less than a month of cumulative use it must have been defective or flawed right? I was in luck, I wasn't supposed to be able to return it since it had been over 90 days, but the very nice ladies at the customer service counter let me anyway since they could tell I had hardly used it.
Well guess what? Not ten swings into the brand new off the shelf replacement, and this is what I had. Now I know I am a true stud...(alright take a second while you finish laughing...done? Ok then.) but really, I hadn't even had enough time to get scratches on one side of this thing before I clean broke the top head off again.
I've taken the time on here before to tout products or services that I feel strongly about. As I've said, good products and services deserve good word of mouth advertising. Conversely, poor and shoddy products deserve poor word of mouth. If any of you are in the market for a sledge hammer any time soon, I encourage you to steer clear of this product, at least the wooden handled one. Which begs me to ask the question, what exactly is "American" hardwood. Didn't good American handles use to be Ash or Hickory? Is this the same variety of "American" product as "American cheese"? Why have we let the name of the greatest country in the world (no offense to those you from elsewhere, but it's how I feel. I wouldn't expect you to feel less for your country.) get associated with poor quality and cheap products? It's a shame really, we're better than that.

On a good note, I had a great weekend over all, I hope you all did too.

P~

Another year older

Well, as I mentioned the other day, I was planning on sitting around getting older this weekend, and so I did, today's my birthday. 37 years have flown by as of today, and as we all know, they only go by faster. We went to a local historical heritage park yesterday for my birthday, because I love history and have been wanting to go there since last year. The kids had a good time, and we went ahead and got a family membership for this season. (50.00 for a family of 5, not a bad deal if you ask me.)

Today the whole family, my Dad included went and broke up and brought home some more recycled concrete for a future project (details to come in the coming weeks.) after a delicious breakfast of Homemade biscuits and gravy. In the afternoon my Uncle T~ come up from Salt Lake City to hang out for a little while. I always enjoy visiting with him. I also got out into the yard for a little while, and had enough time to plant some seeds that I wanted to get planted. There's still more tomorrow, so we'll have plenty of time. After everything I enjoyed some homemade lemon meringue pie, made by my wife, with fresh CA lemons from San Diego from my moms lemon tree.

It was a great day, no complaints. Hopefully all of you had a great day. I'll post more details on some stuff tomorrow if I can. Take care all!

P~

Welcome and Action

Hey all, just wanted to take a second to say welcome to all the visitors that seem to be dropping in from Farm Mom's Blog, and to thank her for her support with my "Walk the Walk" campaign. I've been really starting to feel more and more that I need to get involved with the things that I want to see around me. I'm sure most of us have heard the famous quote from Gandhi that goes:

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

If not, well you heard it here first. When you really think about it though, it is no less than a call to action, of some sort anyway. It don't think it necessarily means to go out and protest, or to be an activist. In fact to some degree that would almost be the antithesis of what he was saying. "Be the change..." not "affect the change..." was the call wasn't it? Yet then again, if we don't begin to take the actions that we believe should be taken, they may never be taken at all. (The "Someone else will do it" syndrome.) One of the reasons that I decided to try to get others involved in the issue that I have with Walmart is because it is a change that I would like to see happen. That and the fact that I know no matter how many letters I write to them, without many other voices, I will not be loud enough to be heard. I guess I am, to some degree, trying to "Be the catalyst of the change that I want to see..."

I have also begun another project this week that I really can't give to many details on. Not so much because it is confidential as it is not set in stone yet and I really don't know what the finished project will end up looking like. What am I talking about? Teaching. Or more to the point, sharing what I have experienced and learned with others in an effort to educate and hopefully inspire them. As I have grown in my experience with my garden and food production and urban chicken raising, I have hoped to get others in my neighborhood inspired to do the same and have actually made some strides on that front as a matter of fact. I've had a couple of neighbors that have decided to expand or modify their garden or gardening techniques to match the ones that I am doing, I am regularly asked about what I'm planting right now, or when they can start their tomatoes. I've kind of started to become that "garden guy" on the corner. So I decided, since it's something I LOVE to talk about anyway, that I would work with the local city to offer some basic FREE classes about growing small scale food plots or "Freedom Gardens" in our suburban lots.

I think that the time is ripe for people want to learn more about how they can begin to become more self sufficient on their own land. The higher food prices are not going to go down drastically, and more and more people are beginning to be more aware of the things that they feed their families. This is the type of change I hope to see in the world. People being responsible for their own sustenance to the degree that they can. Neighborhoods growing food and friendships and becoming more sustainable and prepared for future changes. If you have stories about the things you've started to do, I want to hear about them. Have suggestions for me? Fire away.

Hope you all have a great Weekend. I'll just be sitting around getting older, but more on that later.

P~